Quality of paint finish on MB's

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BillyW124

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
2,892
Location
North West London
Car
W124 E320 coupe, W211 E320 V6 CDI, W211 E63 V8 AMG, R129 SL 280 V6, W215 CL 600 V12 Bi Turbo.
Afternoon all,

Just been out to lunch and have come back in the office and i thought this may be an intersting topic to post.

Working in the city (Liverpool st, Moorgate area) i see a lot of MB's being used to chauffeur ppl around in, new S-classes new E-classes etc. i get to gander at them properly while walking past as they are usually parked up.

Now, ive just seen a new E-class in black outside the office. The term used to describe the finish is what you call 'orange peel'. I learned this from a rather nice chap at Olly's GTG this Saturday gone who was buffing up members paint work. I never knew what it was called untill now, but knew its common amongst paint finishes just didnt know the term.

I see this orange peel paint finish quite a bit these days on brand new cars and It looks completly b$$%ocks!

Orange peel is exactly that, looks like the skin of an orange sort of bumpy, made worse in sunlight.

Why on earth do MB consider this to be ok and sign them off the production line when clearly even the most eagle eye cherry pickers they must employ must obviously see this isnt right?!

I know other marques i.e. BMW etc have this same issue, Ive seen plenty of new 3 series Bmw's with orange peel all over their front wings :dk:

what is going on!?

This is a good example of orange peel paint work.

 
I think its the way the paint is applied these days. I think it looks like orange peel but isnt actually orange peel if you get what I mean.

It's the same on my dads Disco 3 in certain light conditions.
 
My black E350 looks great from all angles and in all lights. No sign of orange peel etc.
 
Agreed-Modern MBs paint is awful. Saw a black B class at a dealer under a downlighter and it it looked like something my 11 year old niece could have done. I spoke to a salesman about it and asked why the paint finish is so poor. He said it was the water based paint they have to use now. He said all manufacturers are now like that to which I replied that Lexus don't have that problem. I had just stepped out of a Lexus dealer, looking at an IS220 and the paint on all thier cars was spot on-no orange peel there! He couldn't comment further. Have a look at the paint on a new Lexus next time you are near a dealer-It's absolutely superb. Mind you, so is the panel fit too-all gaps spot on
 
Apparently legislation a few years ago made them switch to the water based paints and the consensus from those I’ve spoken to is that the paintwork of MBs/cars in general are worse off for the switch. But the environment is saved... priorities! ;)
 
Yes I agree. My limited knowledge in this area also supports the water based paint being the problem rather than the skill of the individual at production level. BMW seems very badly effected by this (3 series springs to mind)
 
Cars are machine painted so no operator skill is involved. The Lacquer coat deliberately has orange peel finish as that hides minor blemishes better.
 
I don't like the new mat colours they seem to be doing either...

Almost all the Mercs this year at the Geneva show were dull mat finishes?

I guess it may hide the orange peal?

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For whats its worth my current bus on 128K miles looks pretty good given the many many motorway trips to Europe its done.
 

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